Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Popular "This Week on A Translation of WireTap with host Jonathan Goldstein" killed by Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Update: May 9th 2010 - I've done a little more research and found that the new audio page format is as open source as any there before - in fact you can copy and paste the whole show and the blurb and publish it as easy as pie.

To wit:
The World on a String







This week on WireTap, Howard teaches Jonathan how to say "Yes" to life. Should Jonathan be more spontaneous? Yes. Should he climb more trees? Yes. Should he give that mangy, rabies infested alley cat a hug? Yes!

So one less worry in your life - that CBC is preparing to destroy the commons - they are not. But the battle to keep podcasts of WireTap up at this site continues; another player has been taken down and I've put another one up (that's 4 players used so far).

Enjoy all my takes and podcasts of the shows by clicking on FilterBlogs "WireTap" label at the bottom of each post.


Free Range Content


It is my opinion that because this blog is an Ad Free website no copyright restrictions should apply here. The CBC legal department probably would offer a different opinion. They use the word 'clip' a lot over there. Here, I was providing a portal to listen the the entire WireTap show. Thus-ly this blog - in a strict interpretation of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 1998 (DMCA) - was in violation.

The CBC recently changed their mp3 player and podcast source Odeo - so when the players disappeared from my "This Week on A Translation of WireTap with host Jonathan Goldstein" series of posts last week, I understood one or two things had happened, either:

  1. Odeo's business model was in violation of DMCA, forcing CBC to change their mp3 server and player... (Odeo site says, "Odeo will be down for maintenance and site improvements. We will restore service as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.")
  2. CBC has asked Google to Take Down my 'whole show' mp3 players.
  3. Or both.

On Monday April 26th I replaced the Odeo mp3 players with Google mp3 players.

This week the players were again Taken Down. This means CBC's Legal Department sees offering the whole show as a player embed here as a copyright violation - and have asked Blogger to Take them Down.

Because Blogger will keep pulling down new players almost immediately (took one day this last time), it is now impossible to continue to bring you these FilterBlogs embeds of the show.

CBC Going 'NewsCorp' On Us?



As well, it looks like CBC is moving all their audio content to a new non-open source player. As of now, each shows podcast address are still available both at the WireTap Podcast page, and at the WireTap Audio page - however, they are sequestering the address inside a flash object that then (I think), asks another server for the address of the podcast. So now the CBC is ready, if they wish, to Take Down Podcast pages of any show and leave only the Audio pages - thus making embeds of any CBC content impossible, by anyone.

The Open Source Team here at FilterBlogs (me) continues to work diligently to keep these publicly paid-for productions 'Free Range Content'. I (we) will eventually find a work around.


The Ethics of Sharing



To check my ethical position here, I asked myself,

'What if a network I despise for their business practices, a for profit business like say, CTV took Johnathan's show and started making a list of the show week by week in podcast form?'

I would hate that. I would want the CRTC to go after CTV and make them stop, and delete all the shows. But it's not because I dislike CTV, it's because they would be selling ads to go on that WireTap page - they would be making a profit off of Jonathan Goldstein's work with out paying Johnathan.

FilterBlogs is a non-profit blog that exists towards the public good. I am building a network of people with similar interests, and in this one case, around 'WireTap with host Jonathan Goldstein'. As the new media map takes shape networks like this one may have become an important ecosystem, a support structure to both the particular show and CBC Radio as a whole.

The CBC through they're Lawyer-ing department are getting caught in a downward spiraling whirl-pool where always preparing for the worst is infecting the corporate mindset and potentially blinding them collectively from perceiving that the flowering of new web applications, and the Internet Operating System that is forming as a result, is an epoch changing opportunity to connect the CBC better than ever to the country - and to the world.

The folks in the CBC's copyright department are victims of their lawyer-ing meme - they cannot escape themselves - poor things.

Technology will leave these copyright enforcers, and every client they represent in a "dust bin" of the history technological progress.

(bangs shoe on podium)

Bye...! :)


Please see Michael Geist's website (University of Ottawa, Canada Research Chair at the in Internet and E-commerce Law) for info and actions you can take to defend your Internet Civil Rights and help keep the web open.

CBC using iCopyright, from CBC public affairs blog.

Be sure to see FilterBlogs "TakeDowns" Tag.



mh

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